Contemporary fiction books from China
Recommended contemporary fiction books (19)
Travel the world without leaving your chair.
If you are into contemporary fiction here are some contemporary fiction books from China for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge.
1.
A Good Fall by Ha Jin EN
Description:
An anthology by the National Book Award-winning author of The Bridegroom contains intricately detailed pieces illuminating the experiences of Chinese immigrants in America, from a lonely composer who takes comfort in a parakeet's song to a group of children who want to change their names.
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Flowers of Lhasa by Tsering Yangkyi EN
Description:
Flowers of Lhasa is a stark and urgent tale of four young women thrown into the seedy underbelly of a sacred city undergoing rapid change. After coming to the big city to look for work, a tragedy befalls Drölkar and leads her to a nightclub called the Rose and a life of selling her body for money. There, she falls in with Yangdzom, Dzomkyi, and Xiao Li. Four women--three Tibetan, one Chinese--all migrant laborers who move to the city and whose misfortunes take them down similar paths. We read of their encounters with wealthy, callous, and often violent men, their struggles to stay afloat and t... continue
4.
Description:
The sweeping history of modern China through the lens of the nation's controversial one-child policy. Frog opens with a playwright nicknamed Tadpole who plans to write about his aunt. In her youth, Gugu-- the beautiful daughter of a famous doctor and staunch Communist-- is revered for her skill as a midwife. But when her lover defects, Gugu's own loyalty to the Party is questioned. She decides to prove her allegiance by strictly enforcing the one-child policy, keeping tabs on the number of children in the village, and performing abortions on women as many as eight months pregnant.--
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Glänzende Aussicht : Roman by Fang Fang DE
Description:
Dieser heute in China unterdrückte Roman machte Fang Fang bei seinem Erscheinen 1987 schlagartig berühmt: Glänzende Aussicht erzählt das Leben einer einfachen Arbeiterfamilie aus Wuhan aus Sicht des verstorbenen jüngsten Sohnes. Es ist ein drastisches Porträt: Zu elft haust die Familie in einer dreizehn Quadratmeter kleinen Hütte. Schon die Jüngsten lernen stehlen, um ihren Beitrag zum Familienleben zu leisten, Schlägereien sind an der Tagesordnung und zärtlichere Töne rar. Im Schatten eines Vaters, der vor allem mit der Faust erzieht, ver... continue
7.
Gold Boy, Emerald Girl by Yiyun Li EN
Description:
"The stories in this collection are mostly set in the China of the 21st century, where economic development has led to situations unknown to previous decades: residents in a shabby block of flats witnessing in awe the property boom; a local entrepreneur-turned-philanthropist sheltering women in trouble in her mansion; a group of retired women discovering fame late in their lives as private investigators specialising in extramarital affairs; a young woman setting up a blog to publicise an alleged affair of her father. Beneath the veneer of prosperity and opportunity, however, lie the struggles ... continue
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Meine Stadt : Roman by Xi Xi DE
Description:
Kann es ein Leben ohne Hongkong geben? Nicht für Aguo, den neunmalklugen, stolzen Bürger der Stadt. Mit seiner Schwester Afa lebt er im Haus der Tanten, genannt »die Lotusblumen«. Oder, an ihren übel gelaunten Tagen, »die Lotuswurzeln«. Aguo wundert sich über alles und jeden in der Schule, mutiert zum leidenschaftlichsten Elektroinstallateur der Stadt und lernt auf seinen Streifzügen durch das Hongkong der 70er Jahre die gesamte Bevölkerung kennen: Müllsammler und Telefonistinnen, Seemänner und Tischler. Sie alle sind vom Festland hier gestrandet, mit sehnsüchtigen Herzen und pompösen Plänen. ... continue
10.
Description:
Lilia Liska is eighty-one. She has shrewdly outlived three husbands, raised five children and seen the birth of seventeen grandchildren. Now she has turned her keen attention to a strange little book published by a vanity press- the diary of a long-forgotten man named Roland Bouley, with whom she once had a fleeting affair. Drawn into an obsession over this fragment of intimate history, Lilia begins to annotate the diary with her own, rather different version of events. Gradually she undercuts Roland's charming but arrogant voice with her sharply incisive and deeply moving commentary. She reve... continue